Category Archives: Strategic Planning

What do you loooove to do? I mean makes you get geeked-out nerdy excited about details others would glaze over and check Facebook when discussed? Have you built a business doing that yet? Why not? Let’s discuss a couple of things if this is on your periphery.

First, nope. No, you do NOT have to be a business owner just because you are good at something. There are risks and stress that employee based careers do not have to deal with on a regular basis. Even if you can fix a car’s engine block just by looking at it or your bacon honey cupcakes are the world’s best. You DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS. Even if you best friend, neighbor and your mother’s boss LOVES what you do. Truthfully that does not mean they will pay for it!

However, if you are thinking that running your own business could set you up to have control of how you live, earn money and work in your life, then what is holding you back? Honestly, what you need to know to build and grow a business can be learned. There are ways to mitigate risks and protect you and your family.

Are you hesitating because you see others struggling? Those folks may be saying how busy or overwhelmed they feel. They feel like they are not making the money they want and seem to have no joy in what they are doing. Blurg! THAT does not seem attractive. What could you do differently to find success if you launch your company?

Here are 4 universal truths on how people sabotage the success of the business which I have observed. Male or female. Experienced or newby. Service or products. Today I am going to have you embrace these 4 before you even start! These are “MUSTS”, not optional, for business owners of successfully profitable companies.

You MUST come to terms for charging a business fee for something you love and may even be…easy for you!

Pricing must be set up to reflect industry standards, combined with market demand (Are you a specialist with few competitors? FEES should be higher!) AND with consideration of a budget that covers the expenses to run your company. Because your talent or genius comes naturally or easily to you does NOT mean it has no value! Easy is GOOD!

Pricing MUST be based on the VALUE TO YOUR MARKET!

You would not buy this service or product so you cannot assess how much you would personally choose to pay. YOU are not your target market. And before you let your neighbor, mother or Significant Other weigh in, be sure that they are in the demographics of your ideal market. Sample the people that actually would BUY and be sure to sell what THEY WANT.

Start planning your hires NOW with Hiring Triggers!

If you are planning to be a business owner to have more freedom, you MUST build a company that is larger than just you and your singular efforts. Set out an organizational structure with the roles you will need in your company and the order that you would ideally like to have them come on. I suggest that you add vendors to this structure. Then assign milestones that will trigger the hiring. This helps beat the emotions and stress that come with uncertainty. Is this the right time to hire? How will this affect the cash flow? You can rest assured that it is part of your plan and keep moving forward.

You MUST be comfortable selling your solution. Yep, YOU!

Yes, we can hire a business development employee eventuallybut you will be educating people on the solution your company provides AND asking for the business for the life of your company. That is what sales is about in reality! Inform a prospect, build the value and ask for the business. This is a MUST. No sales = no business. It does not have to be forced or icky. There are training, coaches and other places to help you improve and excel at this but you should prioritize this piece!

You thought I was going to say business plan, right? Well I hope that was already part of your “to do” list.

If you are hearing the call of a new business, I say run to it. I do believe that we can build a business model and company that will let you succeed, have fun and earn the money that lets you live the life you dream about IF you can walk into these 4 steps and deal with them head on. The sooner you do this in the business building process the sooner you get to do what you love every day! Why fight it?

Now GO! Grow!

If you are looking to set up Hiring Triggers, a new business or work on any of these steps, Talmar It Up would love to work with you! Reach out NOW to TAnderson@TalmarItUp.com.

“Why DO you run off incessantly about hiring Talmar when we know you are a strategic business co-creator?Hiring is just a piece, right?” I talk about, write about and promote hiring strategies, process and best practices non-stop.

I do this because I watch you struggle. I watch you create your own chaos. I watch as you settle for good enough. Worse…I watch as you set yourself up for frustration, heartache and continued financial expense! 100% of successful business strategies include finding the right team. Please, let’s find a way to build a process and system that you can get behind and commit to spending time upon because it IS the singular piece that will ensure you love your business for a long, long time.

But first, we need to set reasonable hiring expectations with YOU by way of some Talmar’s Truths…

​No. We will not find you a number 2 that will stay with you for the next 15 years.

​No. We will not combine 3 part time needs into one full time underachiever with little to no chance of success in all, much less 2 different skill sets.

​No. People do not leave a company for more money but they will choose to start with your company over money!

​Yes! You must call all of those reference checks. (More on that in the next blog!)

“What if “they” do it wrong? What if they leave after I spend 3 months and money training “them”? What if “they” can’t do it as well as me? What if “they” take too much of my time asking questions and interrupting my work?”

I get that the human resource side represents all that we business owners fear…lack of control!

One more Talmar’s Truth. It is gonna happen. Staff and employees demonstrate a myriad of human complications. Planning to build and grow a sustaining and scaling business? Your company is sure to experience these situations. There are ways to manage each possibility but we ARE working with humans and these are the realities.

So let’s plan for people.

Let’s hire the best for each specific role within our company. We need to take the time and follow our internal hiring process. Not missing a step will help us weed out the good enough for the “Wow. What did we do before them?’ team.

Ohhhh….You thought all those documents were to protect the company? Silly rabbits, those documents are to define how a staff member can be successful in your organization!

Let’s start recruiting as a part of a proactive plan based on your strategy. You need to know what HIRING TRIGGERSto watch for and take the stress out of the “when” question.

Make time to find the person before your company is drowning! Too often we put off this piece. It is the piece that we try to create short cuts around. The piece that gets pushed so far to the bottom of our to do pile that by the time we have a “MUST” driving our actions we take what we can get …***Sad trombone***. You deserve better and so does your company!

When you dream about your ideal company…did you really hire the first person that lived close enough and showered that day?

The right team gets “it”. They find satisfaction delivering on their responsibilities that rivals your satisfaction. They get excited for a new client because they are enjoying their work and feel supported by the company. They come to work knowing what needs to be done and offering possible improvements. Being surrounded by THESE kinds of people are what make rapid growth, impactful innovation and financial success a reality. Why would you hurry through or try to “fit in” the discovery and on boarding of the people with whom you will be spending your best days? This IS your dream team!

I know your eyes cross when I talk about developing processes with your own company. When I say “Structure” your organization, you say “it is on my list”. People!(Imagine me with a bullhorn standing on a desk like a small biz Norma Rae) Please understand, and I want you to lean in to get this, right her and right now, you need to know that building the structure of your organization is REQUIRED for success. You are shooting yourself, your clients, your reputation AND your staff in the foot by NOT prioritizing the time required to create an organizational structure for your business. It does not matter how small or how big your business is at this moment.

Do not get me wrong, if you have read my articles or know anything about Talmar it Up, you know that I 100% believe we can build a business model that is specific to you and your vision. You want less bureaucracy and that is why you started your company. IT CAN BE DONE and your business does not have to look exactly like everyone else’s business model. You will get to have the business life that you want once you have built an organization that is supported and functioning around that dream role.

Have you laid out the foundation for building to success? There are tools that successful companies use within a system specific to their industry that creates a repeatable process. Organizational Structure.

You don’t have time?

Well, then, I am glad you and Richard Branson have competing bank account balances. NOT THAT RICHARD BRANSON would do anything other than invest time, money and energy to ensure that his company has what it needs for success. In fact, your company and his companies need the same thing…people.

You need people that want to work for your company.

You need people that understand what their role and responsibilities are within the company.

You need people to be able to deliver for clients consistently and in line with brand expectations.

You need people to feel that they receive the product or service they expected.

You need people to feel valued for their continued patronage and feedback for improvements.

And that is not all of it but it is a great starter list. People will need to be engaged, valued, instructed, managed, communicated on how to perform successfully- employees and clients. Those people will be your star employees, your most loyal clients and your most avid supporter OR they will go somewhere else and your company will suffer and your business will become more demanding of your time, energy and money!

How do you build an organizational structure? One process at a time. Here are examples of some operational processes that could be used as tools for a profitable and growing company.

You need people that want to work for your company.

Tools Include:

Accessibility and empowerment programs

1-1 meetings with Supervisors

A conflict resolution process

You need people that understand what their role and responsibilities are within the company.

Tools Include:

Job Descriptions

Project Accountability assignment

Staff management

You need people to be able to deliver for clients consistently and in line with brand expectations.

Tools Include:

Quality assurance process for the branding

Onboarding and job training

Documented repeatable process

Performance reviews

You need people to feel that they receive the product or service they expected.

Tools Include:

Sales communications setting the correct expectation

Contracts to engage and fulfill successfully

You need people to feel valued for their continued patronage and feedback for improvements.

Tools Include:

Customer engagement

Pre- and Post- deliverable feedback requests

You are already on the way to that growth. You have clients, staff coming on board and money coming in. The decision to look at your organization and regularly prioritize what YOUR business needs is the REAL shift to success. Now GO! Grow!

More questions? Are you on the Talmar It Upmailing listyet? Join now to be sure to directly receive insights, clarity and business operation answers.Or check it out in the latest blog post HERE.

Scaling a business. Have you heard this phrase before? Did you know that the process of scaling a business does NOT have to do with just growing your sales? Certainly, growing sales are a sign of a company that is scaling up, however, the process of a successfully growing company is one that planned for success. I know, crazy, right? We spend so much time worrying and figuring out how we will make it. We project minimums needed to break even. We start from a place of trying to at least not lose our investments in our company. And sure enough, one of the things that can sink a company is when it all goes right!

This is one of my favorite pieces of planning and strategy. I LOVE it! This is when we get to plan for everything working out as we intended. We start from imagining that our new marketing push and sales process are all hitting YES! Will we have enough people/ product/ time / resources to deliver on our dream goal of $1,000,000.00 in revenue? Our full strategic plan will seek to understanding what is working and how it is working throughout the whole company and each of its departments so that we can replicate the good. There are a lot of moving pieces to this growth plan for scaling but I want us to focus on one piece.

Today we are going to talk about the easiest piece to effect profitability in a positive way when scaling growth and creating strategic plans. Create an organizational structure that will profitably allow hiring to execute on delivering and maintaining your quality of deliverables. Huh? In other words, we need to make sure we hire the correct skill level for each task that is required to deliver for your customers. Nothing more but nothing less.

Here is the secret. Assign work flows to the level of expert required for high quality of results. Moving away from client based staff assignments or project based workflows can seriously take your profitability to a new level. We need to look at “how” the sausage is made!

While reviewing your services and products, understand that strategy, highly technical work or out of the ordinary troubleshooting requires an experienced or specialized staff member. These areas can be tracked to usually show a limited need.

Regular workflow and customer service can then be assigned to the 3 junior team members. The decision to have a focused specialist dealing specifically with the troubleshooting may require a company to hire only 1 senior team member. While more expensive for this piece, we can focus their workflow on the limited need of difficult and experience requiring work. Now we are paying high wages to one employee instead of high wages to four of them “in case” the project or client has a sophisticated need.

Consider this perspective to further convince you that your workflows need to be defined and measured. The expert level required for filing papers is not nothing. They need to know how to alphabetize, how to stay engaged and pay attention with focus, as well as the patience to take the time to get pages in the folders neatly to allow for ease of accessibility.

Let this junior level position be handled efficiently and professionally by a person that can value these skill sets. This junior level position will cost the company less because the experience and education to gain this skill set is less intensive. You are no longer paying expert level wages to have your client files organized, accessible and current.

Giving this filing work to a senior level person with advanced or specialized experience can often create a scenario that can cause further complications beyond overpaying for filing services. An expert can be unfocused when not applying their most current expertise and education. Specialists will be looking over their shoulder toward the next challenge and, distracted, they likely are unable to alphabetize correctly on a consistent and reliable basis. It is NOT their priority.

In fact, if you look at their job description, I am sure you will not even see “filing” on the list. It falls under the “and other responsibilities as assigned”. Meaning it was NOT enough of a priority for you to list it for this position and therefore not enough of a priority for the employee to value the time and focus to file correctly.

File correctly you say? Yes. Front to back. Ease of reading (no backward pages). Chronological for each section. What about proper file tags? Are the folders large enough? I highly doubt your senior level expert who has a juicy case on their desk is willing to stop and give the proper focus.

And THAT is where the snow ball starts. Not assigning the right details correctly allows for the little things to pile up or be mistreated. This creates stress and potential for mistakes (missing a client communication document that was filed under the wrong year) and can start headaches for you, your clients and your company’s reputation!

It is in the details that great customer service and rock star deliverables are created. If you are in a growth period and have yet to sit down and organize your company into the roles required for growth AND the skill sets required to complete the different pieces, I’d love to chat with you. I want it all to go right AND I want your company to have smooth sailing into successful growth!

On the rise with ecommerce and online products are the opportunities to grow your sales team. Or on the flip side, a way to increase your income through recommending people, brands and products for compensation. Do either of these options really sound like a bad idea for your business? This incentive creates questions and worry for both the entrepreneur considering this “cut” into their profits and the referral source. I do believe that this can work for a variety of industries so let’s talk a little bit about affiliations!

As a potential commissioned referral source, a common argument stems from the concern that you do not want to be perceived as solely incentivized by being paid to recommend something or someone. That it could appear as self-serving as opposed to prioritizing the needs of your contact. I get it. I too walked the line for many years and turned down offers of compensation from great providers and vendors that I 100% believed in and to whom I continually referred. I wanted to be able to point to my referrals and say that I was only recommending them as a great solution for prospects.

After several years and establishing a reputation for referring the best possible referrals for each individual need, I realized that I was literally leaving money on the table. Yep. I was going to refer those people anyway. Yes, I could genuinely and honestly look prospects in the eye to assure them that my expertise, education and experience led to any recommendation. Not the check book! I do have a few affiliates (from tools like Lead Pages or ConvertKit to trusted business owners that can offer a benefit to my clients and audience like The Lucky Bitch) that I recommend when it fits.

Now what if you are thinking of paying affiliates or commissions to other referral sources? I know, they SHOULD be referring to you because you are amazing and no one can solve your clients issues as well. However, sometimes the marketing campaign to be in front of your referral sources can get lost in your company’s outreach to new lead generation or current prospects. It is true…there are only so many hours in a day.

By monetizing those referrals, you allow the source to be incentivized and rewarded for sales. The first time that income comes back to them, your company WILL be top of mind.

What about doing the numbers to decide? In our example, we are offering a 25% affiliate fee on a $100 product. Imagine you could average 10 sales a month of your $100 product through your own company. Boom! $1,000

Now imagine if one of your best strategic partners could get you in front of another 10 people but maybe only 3 bought through them. $300 – $75 = $225 income for YOUR company. This came off someone else’s marketing and sales efforts (AND expense!). Your referral source was already planning on being in front of this market. They qualified the need for your solution and completed the sale for you! This effort exposed your company and services to a wider market and grew your revenue by 22% thus expanding your credibility AND cash flow!

Plus, it is TOTALLY FUN to cut a check to those referral sources with a big, fat THANK YOU written on it. The referral source is excited because they just made another $75 off conversations they were going to be having anyway.

Could you operate profitably and scale your business by having a stronger pool of pre-qualified prospects? While this example is based off a client’s experience, consider that we developed a specific and strategic operational plan to support the intake, payment tracking and communications with these referral sources. For success, this is will require creating another operational layer. However, with the right affiliates you gain access to new markets and qualified sales. This can be especially beneficial during new launches or product offerings.

It may not be right for every company but in the on-demand market of small businesses, sales forces are much smaller than the larger corporations had access to in the past. Is it worth it to your company’s bottom line to find a way to reward those strategic partners that are already working on creating income themselves? It is something to consider when looking for new ways to grow your revenues.

Story of a WORKING strategic plan!(it has a surprise ending…)By Talmar Anderson

Today we will look at a part of the Talmar It Up strategic plan in an effort to share possible outcomes in your own strategic plan! Having spoken as a part of many business retreats and conferences, Talmar It Up had created The Takeoff Series in 2016. A limited number of clients learn a focused agenda on specific, yet varied, business topics over 2 days in a small group setting. I had been approached about growing this segment of my firm. Retreats/conferences specifically. Part of the current TIU strategic plan was to research and develop the Takeoff series on a larger scale. Scaling, right? That is my thing!

Many concepts were considered and structures evaluated of how to build a consistent and appealing business education based vacation that delivered all that clients would expect. As part of my plan, several months ago, I scheduled to attend a 3 day conference out of town in an industry adjacent to mine that was being offered by a peer and woman I admire. The benefit of attending for the results offered was doubled because I was going with an eye to observe and consider, from the operational stand point, all the moving parts.

Phew! Hats off to the event planners of the world. Those conferences are, well, a lot! The conference I attended was amazing. Well-staffed with top notch and accessible people at every level throughout the entire event. The site chosen worked to allow for community building and attendee privacy. The speakers and presenters truly came from a place of education and were open to interact with the attendees consistently. The company that offered the conference was prepared and professional. There were no lines or long waits for any of the transitional moments of the entire group. This was a beautiful orchestra in motion.

And in that experience I saw that it could be done. Scaling this was a real opportunity for my company. I could surround myself with the right people to get this done for my clients and business.

And then in THAT moment I did the secret to success and happiness check. Do you know what I am talking about? A huge part of strategic planning is considering what could be, planning out what it would take to deliver…truly deliver the plan to your audience, and then ask yourself “Do I really want to do this?”

Do you want to commit your company’s time to offer this regularly? Do you want to commit X% of your company’s money and resources to making this happen? When you think of the work involved…do you get excited for the challenge or tired from the energy it will require? Heck, will it be any fun delivering for your clients in this way?

As I participated and enjoyed the benefits of the wonderful event, I looked at the host and thought, she is brilliant at this. I also knew that I was not interested in growing the Takeoff series into the bigger offering. I apply for myself the same insight I use for others. Because I could, doesn’t me I have to do it.

I will, of course, still speak at conferences and retreats, however Talmar It Up will continue to only offer the limited retreats series.The scaling of the event would require several days of general help to the clients. Beneficial yes but I know that my one on one connection of delivering specifically for each client’s business model needs is my true happy dance inciting work. Both for me and for them.

Strategically, that is not me playing small. My podcast allows me to influence more and more people throughout the globe. Conferences I attend as a speaker allow me to reach hundreds. However, the time and energy to plan, organize and manage those kind of events will take me too far from how I like to deliver in my work.

And so the strategic plan worked! By working the steps of my own strategic plan I can confidently let go of the time, money and resources I was allocating for that expansion. I will review my strategy to see if this leaves a hole or where Talmar It Up can further diversify and grow. It was not a failure or wasted resources to spend money, time and research efforts on something Talmar It Up will not move forward upon at this time. I know where I don’t want to take Talmar It Up and that in itself creates focus. Can’t wait to see what the future is bringing now that I let go of that goal to create new space! Now GO! Grow!

Are you on the Talmar It Upmailing listyet? Join now to be sure to directly receive insights, clarity and business operation answers.Check it out in the latest blog post HERE.

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Social Media Engagement is More Than a Thumbs UP!
By Talmar AndersonTalmar It Up, LLC

“Social media is THE way to economically and organically grow a business.” That is what a lot of entrepreneurs are being told by well-meaning friends, vendors and other business owners. And it certainly can be. However, please be aware that engagement is REALLY how social media works for helping significant leaps happen for your company. Clients sometimes list social media under their marketing plans with a line item expense of little to minimum costs. I challenge that because your social media plans need to include engaging with your audience to take full advantage. Engaging certainly costs more (whether more of a commitment of your and your team’s time or by hiring an outside marketing vendor) but WOW, that is where that exciting and exponential growth can come from for your company. Whether growing to a billion dollar company like Chobani or developing a raving and true following like Chubbies Shorts (clothing line with marketing content that is real AND funny), engagement can help a company sell products/services, grow market share, build brand awareness and even improve operations. (You know I love the last part!) …. Consider focusing on this piece if social media is in your marketing plan or a part of your strategy for the year.

Pushing out posts, messages and pictures can provide true value when engagement is a part of the plan. Your social media plan must include assigning not just the content creation and the management of the posting schedule, but also who is authorized to respond to your audience. How are they allowed to position your company through responses? also cover how to capture and track the engagement data that your audience is giving you with every “thumbs up”, share or comment.

As you start spending time and energy for engagement consider that it is more than going through to “like” posts. Your process should include thoughtful consideration on how you handle the good and bad comments. Want a great response? Choose an area that you think you are doing well and ask that loaded question. “What could we do better with…?” Boy howdy, strap into your seat and get ready. Continually encouraging feedback (good AND bad) will help your company define and improve on what your clients really want. We all know that social media lets the public they you what they really think about any given subject.

What can engagement do for YOUR company?

PR (stands for public RELATIONS people!)

building a larger market opportunity through awareness and education

Build your brand and reputation

Here is where your company’s responsive, timeliness and topical relevance can shine

Improve customer satisfaction and operations

Gathering data on what clients like, want, don’t like and LOVE. See below for a great example!

I love this one excellent example that could EASILY be applied by any small business. Recently, Elon Musk and his company Tesla took a social media post complaining about how cars were parking in the charging stations and within eight days created an entirely new company wide- process. It is well thought out. (Check out this Inc. article for more details HERE). This whiplash-speed operational change not only resolved the issue to incentivize people to get out of those spots and free them up for other customers who need to charge their electric cars but allowed that it could also create a new revenue stream.

I do recommend developing your social media plan to include a thorough engagement commitment and policy. Certainly, an outward push is helpful but incoming information and your team consistently monitoring to allow responsive, considerate engagement and ensure there are no great opportunities missed is where the bigger “bang for your dollar” comes in. The right engagement in the right moment will enhance your reputation, build a more loyal fan base and potentially grow more of the market share. Engagement can help you deliver exactly what your clients want AND operational follow up can build immediate brand loyalty and strengthen your company’s reputation. Now Go! Grow!

Are you on the Talmar It Upmailing listyet? Join now to be sure to directly receive insights, clarity and business operation answers.Check it out in the latest blog post HERE.